


Yliadus

by DoctorDay



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Four Stars of Yliaster, Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23495944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorDay/pseuds/DoctorDay
Summary: According to Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds' Director Katsumi Ono's Twitter, he considers Yliadus to be the souls of Z-ONE, Antinomy, Paradox, Aporia and many other people who are asleep within the Ark Cradle who are no longer of this world. This is the story of the Four Stars of Yliaster, and the others that were entombed within Z-ONE's citadel.
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue: Distant Memories of the Future

Paradox smiled beneath his mask. Yuki Judai vaulted through Venice with all the grace of a superhuman acrobat, but he couldn’t evade his dragons’ attacks for long. His experiment would succeed, he knew this. It had to, for the safety of the future. He knew this, and all humanity would know this. Their paradigms would shift, as his had. They would know the truth of their sins, as he had learned the truth in that long-ago future from which he originated.

Bruno raced through a dark tunnel, followed by Fudo Yusei and aided by some unseen force compelling him onwards. As they reached the Planetary Gear, they were shocked at its emptiness. Was there not supposed to be a guardian to face? As the light of the Ener-D rose and engulfed Bruno, he remembered. He remembered his comrades, his past, his name. Antinomy. He removed his visor, preparing to fulfill his task.

Aporia rose from the rubble, brimming with the hope he had thought lost. As he staggered through the debris, the graveyard of stone that was the Support Gear of the Ark Cradle, he remembered. He remembered his parents’ love for him, his love for Eurea, the hope he felt when he was found by the other three survivors of the Meklord Genocide. He stood, ready to face the monolithic deity that gave him new life.

Z-ONE fell towards the center of the Ark Cradle, secure in the knowledge that the future could be changed. In besting him, Yusei, his hero and idol, had proven worthy of changing that future. He remembered his friends, Paradox, Aporia, Antinomy. The others before them, that he had tried to help, and when he failed, entombed them in his temple, the Yliadus. Yudei, Kyoko, Katsuki, Meiji, and the others. He was at peace, as he closed his eyes and waited for oblivion.


	2. The Death of Fudo Yusei

He had failed. All he had sacrificed, all he had lost, for naught. As he watched the ground crack and shatter beneath him, he realized the magnitude of his failure. As the people he had come to know as family fell out of his reach, a tall blonde man pulled him up from his collapsed state. “Come now, Yusei. We can still save some of them.” “I-I-I-I can’t. I couldn’t. No, he couldn’t.” Yusei muttered, hands shaking uncontrollably. “What are you talking about? Get ahold of yourself, Yusei!” The other man yelled. “No, not Yusei,” he muttered, blood trickling out of the corners of his eyes and mouth. “I am not, not worthy off t-that name.” The dark haired man gasped, and his eyes rolled back into his head as he lost consciousness.

* * *

His eyes opened. As he closed his eyes to shield from the brightness of the white space around him, his memory came rushing back. He recalled falling into the abyss of his failure. He recalled falling so ineffably fast that his mind went blank, as the speed of his descent became infinite.

He remembered fragments, bits and pieces, the intermingling of two pasts. He remembered the burning fire of the Crimson Dragon, and the cold metal buried in his face.

His eyes opened again. This time he saw the Meklord Emperors, embodiments of humanity’s sins. He saw himself face the Dark Signer of the Condor, and emerge victorious. He saw a single eye encased in metal.

He knew despair, and fell forward as he woke up in a makeshift bed, screaming.

The blonde man woke from his rest in a chair nearby, and dashed towards the man in the bed.

“Yusei, are you alright?” He asked, frantic.

“No, Kenji. I’m not alright. I’ve failed.” He shivered, eyes vacant.

“You haven’t failed. Not by a long shot. Me, Yudei, Kyoko, Katsuki, and Meiji are all here. The others...didn’t make it, but we’re not out of the race yet. There’s still hope, Yusei.”

“Don’t call me that. I failed to live up to his legend.” The dark haired man sat up, the mechanical device in his face crackling with energy as he looked at Kenji. The tall man gasped quietly, but recomposed himself.

“I made myself Yusei to give people hope. What hope can they have now?” The despair was etched into every line of his face.

Kenji leaned towards him.

“Yusei isn’t the only one who can give people hope, my friend. Tell me, what should I call you?”

He thought for a moment. His old name was long dead, cast away the moment he became Yusei, he couldn’t revert to that. He cast his mind back, remembering how he meticulously input the personality of Fudo Yusei into the device implanted in his face, the Zirconium-Original Nature Emulator. His magnum opus bore no fruit in the end. He straightened in the bed, a spark of inspiration in his eyes.

“Call me Z-ONE.”


	3. The Birth of Z-ONE

Z-ONE and Kenji exited the makeshift tent, and saw four people sitting around a campfire amidst the rubble.

Tokoyama Yudei, Kenji’s half-brother and master programmer, was fiddling with a piece of gadgetry as he watched the flames flicker. A pale, lavender haired woman whispered to him as she pointed things out about the device.

A short man with spiky black hair, Tomohiro Katsuki, scribbled in a journal as he tuned out everything around him.

Meiji Phoenix fidgeted nervously as he watched Kenji and Z-ONE exit the shelter.

“Yus-” Meiji stopped short, eyes widening as he saw the device.

“What’s that device?” Nishihara Kyoko asked, as she leaned away from Katsuki.

“It made me become Fudo Yusei. I was once a scientist who discovered how to beat the Meklords. We needed hope, and I made myself Fudo Yusei to give everyone that hope.” He looks down. “As you all can see, it wasn’t enough. 𝘐 wasn’t enough.”

Everyone was silent at Z-ONE’s shame. They knew he couldn’t have been Yusei, but the illusion’s shattering was no less painful.

“No. I- I just wanted to save everyone.” He looked up, eyes filled with determination. “I still want to save everyone.”

After a moment, Katsuki spoke up.

“Yusei or not, you’re still our friend. We will help you.”

The others nodded their assent.

“Let’s all get to bed, everyone. Tomorrow we’ll search for survivors. As Yusei doesn’t exactly fit anymore, you all may call me Z-ONE.” He walked back into the shelter, laid down, and closed his eyes as he drifted into slumber.


	4. New Discoveries

As the sun rose above a cracked horizon, the survivors split into three teams of two to look for anyone else who may have survived the Meklords’ attack.

Kenji and Yudei went north, to the ruins of an abandoned library, as they thought it’d make a good shelter for any survivors.. Z-ONE and Meiji went east, searching through piles of rubble, hoping someone was alive under there amidst the wreckage. Kyoko and Katsuki went south, finding the ruins of an old laboratory, the spiral logo painted above the door cracked and fading.

Kyoko opened the rusty metal doors to the lab, calling out for anyone who may be in there. A pink-haired, green-eyed teenager with a shocked look on his face ran to the door, followed by a tall blonde man with a monocle.

“Yes, yes we’re here!” The boy shouted, as the man stepped through the doors, eyes squinting at the sunlight.

“Who are you guys?” Katsuki asked, head tilted quizzically.

The child spoke up. “My name is Michael Arclight, and this is my father, Byron.”

Meiji and Z-ONE walked through mounds of rubble, listening for any signs of life. There was only silence. Suddenly, a scream rang out through the emptiness, as a Meklord Emperor Granel held a blue-haired man at gunpoint.

A blast went off.

Z-ONE had found his D-Wheel in the wreckage, and destroyed the Granel.

The man stood still for a few seconds, eyes wide and vacant. As Z-ONE approached, he snapped back to reality, and thanked him profusely for saving him.

“It was my pleasure. I am called Z-ONE. This is my associate Meiji Phoenix. And you are?”

Meiji interrupted, “You’re Johnny, the leader of Team Delta. You were a Pro Duelist!”

“I was!” The man smiled, memories of a lost era shining in his eyes, quickly fading as the reality of their situation sunk back in.  
“I was.”

As Z-ONE, Meiji, and Johnny returned to the campsite, they saw Kyoko, Katsuki, and the two Arclights waiting for them. Introductions were made, and hope was felt, hope that there were still others out there, hope that not all was lost.

Then Kenji returned.

“Yudei’s disappeared. Meklords attacked, and we were separated. There was” He paused, sobs choking his voice. “Nothing left when I was able to get to him. I’m so sorry.”

Darkness fell over the group. Melancholy returned, and the hope that seemed so bright vanished from their sight. Yudei was Kenji’s only remaining family, and now he was gone. Gone by the sin of humanity that wrought the Meklords. Gone because of Synchro Summoning.


End file.
